Thank you so much for sharing your story! As someone else with a degenerative eye disease (macular degeneration) at a young age — I’m 40 — it’s important to get the message out about preventative medicine and healthcare. Thanks, and good luck!

Thank you for that, it was an important message to get across to people who may never think about going to get their eyes checked because they "can see fine".

We pay for eye tests in the UK, but lots of people get them free through their employer or because of family history of things such as glaucoma. Every day I am glad for the NHS, as I've had a lot of treatment that would have likely bankrupted me in the US.

Quick note: There was a lot of editing and the title was changed for the audience, but the title in this reddit post is the original.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to read and respond. It is both gratifying and disheartening to read of so many others in similar circumstances (which is an odd combination of emotions.)

I apologize profusely in the delay to my response, but a very close friend of my family, who was suffering from sever Parkinson's (and was just a few years older than I am), took her own life last week. She lived three hours away, and we've been shuttling back and forth cleaning up the house, arranging "things", and doing all of the stuff no one thinks of until something like this happens.

I do not blame her at all. I think she saw a window of time to control her own destiny, because one more fall or just a bit more motor skill deterioration and she would lose that choice. And I certainly understand the feeling of a (relatively, in my case) sound body being trapped in a body that has betrayed you. I don't believe in gods of any type, and I think the term "organized religion" is an oxymoron, but I hope she is at peace.

I'm new at this Reddit stuff, so I hope I did this right....

Great writing! Not from glaucoma, but I had same situation, went in thinking I just needed glasses, got told to go immediately to eye hospital. Turns out my retinas were both detaching from Uveitis.

I was a librarian before my eyesight turned to shit, and I really like your style of writing.

Well done!! I admire you for admitting to the emotions that some of us experience as we lose our sight. The process of letting go of the life you thought you would have is extremely difficult. Essentially an entirely new person is born out of the trauma. It’s no wonder that we experience anger, frustration, depression, and fear. Congratulations on your accomplishments!! Again, well done!!

That was a fantastic read. As another adult with potentially blinding eye disease, this hits home. Especially the putting off care for fear of bills.

Thanks for sharing your story.

You are a gifted writer!

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